Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
Chapter 1: Murmurs
Mika Applegate, Age: 27, Victor, District 11
This is going to be a difficult year.
Admittedly, every Hunger Games season was hard, but with Chaff feeling unwell and two very young tributes who were very likely to die in the opening few minutes, Mika was dreading the coming weeks even more than usual. She didn't even want to think about next year.
Plus, the Reaping recap seemed an unfortunate indicator of things to come.
Thirteen-year-old Dahlia had been crying too much after dinner to attend, and fourteen-year-old Bramble hadn't even been there; he'd refused to leave his room since boarding, not even to eat.
Mika couldn't imagine doing so herself. Well, he's a town boy, a shopkeeper's son, so maybe he's not as hungry as tributes from field-worker families. Tributes like me.
Her heart still ached for him.
On top of the tributes, Chaff had been feeling unwell and went to bed early. And Eleven's current escort, Gennadius, was more interested in playing games on his tablet than doing any off-camera duties, so Mika might as well have been alone as the recap started playing.
Ignoring the noises coming from the escort's device, she flipped to a blank page in her notebook and clicked her pen open, ready as always to take notes on each district's tributes besides her own.
District 1: Alysia and Adonis. Careers. Both standard for 1. Boy related to Shimmer Boleyn?
District 2: Petra and Flint. Careers. Typical for 2.
District 3: Kia and Glitch. Glitch very small, afraid, likely no threat. Kia older, calmer. Do not count her out yet.
District 4: Tara and Gill. Careers. Tara most beautiful Career yet this year. Otherwise typical for 4.
Her anticipated note-taking for District Five was delayed by someone yelling, "I volunteer!" in response to the escort calling out some twelve-year-old boy's name.
Mika watched as the child initially called gaped then scurried back to his section, as an older boy emerged from the oldest group of potential male tributes. He had deep tan skin, short dark hair, and as the cameras zoomed in, his startlingly bright blue eyes became visible.
Those eyes looked at the Capitol escort with nothing but pure, undisguised disgust as he gave his name.
It took a moment for Mika to resume scribbling in her notebook.
District 5: Myra and Darien. Latter is an outlier volunteer. Does not look like he did it out of love for the Games or Capitol.
She wanted to write more, but the recap had moved on to the next district before she could gather her thoughts enough to do so.
District 6: Caddy and Otto. Young and small.
District 7: Holly and Owen. 17 and 16, both look strong. Potential contenders.
District 8: Lenore and Blue. Lenore looks relatively strong and is pretty. Do not count out.
District 9: Maisie and Bran. Same notes as for D8 girl apply to Maisie.
District 10: Lael and Kip. Lael is beautiful, Kip looks strong. Do not count out.
She didn't take notes on Eleven's Reaping, but couldn't hold in a sigh as she watched Dahlia and Bramble mount the stage again, both looking too small, too young, so afraid.
It was almost a relief when the recap moved on to the last district.
District 12: Penny and Eli. Penny is tiny. Eli looks reasonably strong. Do not count out.
The second the recap ended, Gennadius got up and walked out without taking his eyes off of his device, leaving Mika alone.
Closing her notebook, she shut her eyes and let her head drop back against the back of her chair. Another year, another twenty-four children. And next to no hope for ours. There almost never was.
Nine years ago, three Games after almost sixteen-year-old Mika had been lifted from her sweltering rainforest Arena, there had been a glimpse of hope for Eleven. Ruta Acres had been about Mika's age, strong and brave. He' d almost made it.
Like my grandmother, except Ruta got even closer. So much closer.
But Two's beloved Eve Charades had won, and none of Eleven's tributes had made it past the halfway mark since. After Eve, there had been Cerise from Eight, an outlier who won by fighting like a Career. Then there had been gorgeous Shimmer from One, Leviathan from Four, Maxima from Two, Romulus from Two, Amaranth from One...besides Cerise, all Capitol-favorite volunteers.
At least the Ninety-Fifth and Ninety-Seventh were a change of pace. Kori and Ira, from Three and Nine respectively, were very far from trained, bloodthirsty killers. But the end result was the same. Twenty-three dead children and one Victor.
Every year, especially during the Games season and the Victory Tour, Mika would hear murmurs, rumors of a factory riot in this district, a stolen Peacekeeper food stash in that one, a coordinated escape in another. The whispers would spread right under the Capitol's nose, whispers of resistance, of rebellion, of war.
Yet every single year...or even every single six months, depending on how one looked at it...the pageant of excess and child murder would continue. There had apparently been a flicker of hope during the Seventy-Fourth Games, when Mika was still an infant, but since then...
I'm so tired.
If she said that to Chaff, he'd laugh and say, "You're too young to be tired! Look at me; I have a damn good reason to be tired!"
Then he'd give me a pat on the shoulder and one of his rare gentle smiles, because he understands better than anyone.
Not tired enough to go to bed, she got up and went to the back of the train, where half of the car's curved wall was a giant window. The stars sparkled above the dark, blurred landscape. The moon was a tiny sliver in the sky.
Another year. Another Games out of ninety-nine. Almost a full century of dead kids. Another future Victor that more likely than not will be from an inner district and slaughter their opponents, or maybe be an outlier who hides and lives off the land like I did.
And even Mika had killed. The girl from Six had been an accident. The boy from Four had not. It never goes away, was how she'd had to explain it to her mother when it took years for her to leave the house besides the two times a year she was forced. They never go away.
Sleep wasn't going to come tonight, so she pulled her notebook out again to expand upon her notes. I've got to try to outline strategies, even if it won't matter in the end…
Although she didn't write it down, she imagined that the murmurs would be particularly loud this year.
Outlier volunteers tend to cause that.